Layth Yousif Gooner Fanzine editor 
Arsenal supporters: Get your copy of an exciting reissue on legendary Alex James
Alex James by John Harding: Foreword by Denis Compton - find out more about this exciting reprint
A pint-sized schemer who guided Arsenal to four league titles in five seasons, Alex James was regarded as the finest footballer in the world during the 1930s - having risen to national fame in Scotland’s 5-1 destruction of England in 1928 as a key figure in thefamed ‘Wembley Wizards’.
A rogue with a penchant for the good life, James may have rubbed shoulders with the great and good in the pre-war entertainment world of the capital, but he was still regarded as a mere player to the football authorities who imposed a maximum wage of just £8 per week on players who drew huge crowds and generated reams of press coverage.
First published in the 1980s when many of James’ contemporaries were still alive to offertheir reflections, John Harding’s acclaimed biography is an entertaining portrait of one of the key sporting figures of the 1930s and his place among the larger than life personalities in thelost world of pre-war football.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Harding is the author of Alex James: My Football Life, first published in 1987 and updated more than two decades later.
A sports historian and literary biographer of over 30 years’ experience, he has chronicled the lives of footballers Billy Meredith and boxer Jack ‘Kid’ Berg and playwright Shelagh Delaney among others.
He writes regularly for publications such as The Blizzard and When Saturday Comes.
Alex James by John Harding
Foreword by Denis Compton
ISBN: 9781915616197 - 304pp
£14.95 - Paperback - Published: November 2024
Empire Publications
enquiries@empire-uk.com
